SPARK OUR SISTERS

Immediate Release - June 2018

Shelter for homeless battered women and children struggling to pay monthly utility bills!

Strengthen Our Sisters(SOS) has provided housing and supportive services to thousands of battered/homeless women and children since 1991. SOS is group of very dedicated people on a mission.

The shelter is struggling to keep its door open as the utility bills pile up. By the end of the month, the shelter owes more than $10,000 in utility related bills it cannot afford to pay. The shelter has struggled financially when government funding was drastically cut in 2012. Some creditors are lenient with Strengthen Our Sisters, and are willing to work out a payment arrangement, while others are not. Cutting off the utilities would put a lot of women and children in even a worse situation they are in now.

Strengthen Our Sisters is completely volunteer-run and for many of its residents, a last resort for women and children struggling to get back on their feet. SOS reaches out where others fear to tread. When the Welfare to Work program was initiated, we lost the majority of our funding and were not able to pay our dedicated staff. 13 of those people stayed with us and are working tirelessly to serve the people in need, who otherwise would be forced to return to their batterers, give up their children or live under the bridges. We are there for them and have kept our 7 shelters, 2 daycare centers, food pantry and thrift store operating for the last 4 ½ years without paid staff. With our raised funds, the first responsibility is our mortgage, which we have faithfully paid. However, without utilities, the shelters cannot remain open – so we are calling upon all good people of conscience to make a contribution towards our utilities bills.